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AliceFromMoscow WayToRussified
Joined: 10 Jul 2004 Posts: 411
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Posted: Sat Sep 18, 2004 9:40 pm Post subject: |
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| 20% of Russian population are over 60, and most of them miss ussr. thats it. |
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Fox7777 Just Starting
Joined: 14 Sep 2004 Posts: 2 Location: Fox Island, WA, USA
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Posted: Tue Sep 21, 2004 7:51 am Post subject: Is the outlook good for democracy in Russia's future? |
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In the news we hear how the Russian government is suspending some elections, jailing the Yukos President (who had different political views from Putin), etc. Do you feel confident that democracy has a good future in Russia? Do you have Meetups similar to http://dfa.meetup.com/424/ ? Do a high percentage of Russians vote?
We will be visiting Russia very soon.
Thanks, Joel |
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Atomcat Lounge Lizard
Joined: 30 Jul 2004 Posts: 187
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Posted: Wed Sep 22, 2004 3:44 am Post subject: Alice |
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Last edited by Atomcat on Fri Nov 05, 2004 4:44 am; edited 1 time in total |
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mountaingirl Frequent Guest
Joined: 06 Sep 2004 Posts: 57
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Posted: Fri Oct 22, 2004 8:23 pm Post subject: |
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Sorry, I know this is a old subject...but I have a russian friend who is in her mid-twenties and has to suppot her invalid mother and herself. She has a hard time finding a job and is just old enough to remember the time where everyone had a job, and the security of knowing what tomorrow would bring. But too young to remember the horrors of that time period. Do you think alot of young people are that way? Or is it just her.
mountaingirl |
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Atomcat Lounge Lizard
Joined: 30 Jul 2004 Posts: 187
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Posted: Fri Oct 22, 2004 8:30 pm Post subject: Thinking |
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Last edited by Atomcat on Fri Nov 05, 2004 4:19 am; edited 1 time in total |
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Klamm Frequent Guest
Joined: 04 Sep 2004 Posts: 38 Location: Chile
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Posted: Fri Oct 22, 2004 10:14 pm Post subject: |
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Hello:
I dont know why north-americans (remember USA is not America...it is just a part of north America) and russians usually get so upset and angry when somebody asks them their oppinion about topics of their countries which the whole world is interested.
It seems they become very unconfortable and ashamed when somebody asks their oppinion about those issues (Iraq and USSR) |
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wavetossed WayToRussified
Joined: 27 Jun 2004 Posts: 339
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Posted: Sat Oct 23, 2004 1:31 am Post subject: Classic Rock |
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In Canada or the USA you will have radio stations for people over 30 called "Classic Rock" stations.
In Russia there is Russkoe Radio 2 http://www.rusradio2.ru/
As you can see if you can read the "About Us" link here http://www.rusradio2.ru/01_about/ their slogan is "Our Homeland - USSR". Technically the word "Rodina" means "Land of our Birth" but it's hard to find an English word that corresponds directly. People used to know that the Latin word "Native" means "Birth" but nowadays "Native Land" just doesn't quite have the same ring. Otherwise you would agree if I called Martin Luther King a Native American.
Also, ask people on Russian forums for their favourite films and they will send you long lists of Soviet films of the 60s, 70s and 80s. I've seen many of these films and they really are very good.
In fact, if you ask foreign travellers what they like about Russia, chances are they will describe something that was created by the Soviet Union. Like the trains across Siberia. Or the Hermitage museum. Or the fashion sense of the young women. Or the Moscow Metro. Or the Red Army uniforms.
The thing I liked best about Russia also comes from the Soviet Union. It was the sign that I didn't see because it wasn't there. I took a bus between Ekaterinburg and Chelyabinsk. Twice there were small paved roads heading west with signs indicating that they led to a very small town named Kyshtym. But there were no signs indicating that they lead to a small city named Ozersk where Russia rebuilds all of its nuclear weapons every 10-15 years to keep them in tip-top operational condition. I liked that. It felt kind of comforting to know that the old Soviet ways are still there and we still have some form of power balance in the world.
But I also liked the fields and forests with no fences, the people picking berries in the forest and selling them beside the highway, the abandoned fields in the radioactive zone from the Mayak nuclear accident, the drunk farm woman drinking from her one liter bottle of beer on the bus with her 4 year-old on her lap, the 16 cracks in the bus's windscreen, the rest stop that looked like a mountain man's cabin in Wyoming in the 1830's, the soldiers loading tanks on a train at a station east of Samara, the hundreds of miles of wild marijuana plants growing beside the tracks in the Volga region, the banya that was more carefully built than the owner's house, the petrol stations that looked like miniatures of ancient Russian architecture, and many other things. |
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Atomcat Lounge Lizard
Joined: 30 Jul 2004 Posts: 187
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Posted: Sat Oct 23, 2004 2:20 am Post subject: Saying |
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Last edited by Atomcat on Fri Nov 05, 2004 4:18 am; edited 1 time in total |
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mountaingirl Frequent Guest
Joined: 06 Sep 2004 Posts: 57
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Posted: Sat Oct 23, 2004 6:56 pm Post subject: |
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Atomcat,
My friend does not have a trade. She is a poor Russian, and couldn't afford a education. But it is not that she does not have a intrest in education at all. She reads whatever she can get her hands on, and loves to study when she can. She lives in Velikiy Novgorod. |
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AliceFromMoscow WayToRussified
Joined: 10 Jul 2004 Posts: 411
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Posted: Sun Oct 24, 2004 1:32 am Post subject: |
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| mountaingirl wrote: | | She is a poor Russian, and couldn't afford a education. |
Most of universities are free. Maybe she just didnt pass exams and decided not to go there? |
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Atomcat Lounge Lizard
Joined: 30 Jul 2004 Posts: 187
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Posted: Sun Oct 24, 2004 5:17 am Post subject: Poor |
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Last edited by Atomcat on Fri Nov 05, 2004 4:17 am; edited 1 time in total |
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mountaingirl Frequent Guest
Joined: 06 Sep 2004 Posts: 57
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Posted: Sun Oct 24, 2004 3:42 pm Post subject: |
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She cannot go, due to supporting her single mother. Shw has a part-time job in the summer time interpreting. (she taught herself english) But that is in the city where she lives. Responsibilty ties her at home.  |
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mountaingirl Frequent Guest
Joined: 06 Sep 2004 Posts: 57
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Posted: Sun Oct 24, 2004 3:50 pm Post subject: |
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I must add...I don't know if she took exams or anything. So that could be true.
But my main question was...all these circumstances have led to her thinking that, though there were not many personal freedoms during communism, it was better for the security of the future. Do you think alot of Russians feel like that? |
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